Koi
by Pink Hatter
Summary: Ayla and Yakoh's story. How they found love in each other only to lose it.
1. Chapter 1

Koi

From a distance I watch a seemingly happy couple. They stand close to each other, arms almost touching. The young woman says something to make the man laugh, the smile reaching his eyes causing her to blush. The couple walks a little further, snaking their way around the koi pond. The man takes her elbow and walks her off the path to sit near the water's edge. As I watch I must tense to keep myself from moving closer to keep the same amount of distance between us as was ingrained in me from years of training, for they are not an ordinary couple.

Remembering this I am comforted. She is not only his companion but the assassin Ayla. For just as she is no ordinary woman, he is no ordinary man. He is the young King Yakoh and he is in love with his hired assassin and body guard. Sensing that they require privacy, and knowing that Ayla was more than capable of protecting the young king , I moved on to relieve another guard of his duty.

"Ah, this feels so much better," Ayla said leaning back on her hands as she moved her feet through the cool water of the koi pond, stirring up the fish as she did so.

"Yes it _is_ a rather warm day for so late in October. Maybe we should retreat to the indoors to get you out of the sun, your cheeks are flushed," Yakoh replied reaching out to touch her cheek for emphasis.

Ayla didn't want to admit it to him but it wasn't the unusual heat of the day that caused the blood in her cheeks to rise to the surface. She had spent all afternoon and the better part of the morning with Yakoh and still had trouble adjusting to his casual touch and depth of his eyes when he looked at her.

"I'm fine really, besides it would be just as warm inside only more so without the winds gentle breezes. I would much rather remain here beside the pond," Ayla sincerely told him, only in her mind she added _with you_.

"Whatever pleases you. As it is, I happen to rather enjoy being here with you, watching you wiggle your toes at the fish like worms to catch. It is a suitable place for us don't you think?"

"I'm not sure what you mean, but I _do _like it very much."

Taking Ayla by the hand and gently rubbing the smooth skin of the top with the pad of his thumb, Yakoh spoke softly, "I only meant that knowing that koi means not only carp but also love and affection, this place suits us well. I know, Ayla that I have not told you in so many words that I love you, but I hope that I have shown you well enough for you to know it."

By now Ayla had nearly completely stopped. What pathetic amount of air she was able to pull in was ragged and sounded harsh even to her own ears. She forced a deep breath into her lungs and concentrated on pushing it back out without shaking. _Could he really mean it?_ She had always suspected that maybe he had a small amount of feelings for her but _love_ had _never_ seemed possible to her. Always she told herself that he was a king and could not love _her. _She was thinking about this again when she was startled to realize just _how close_ Yakoh was sitting beside her. _Has he been that way all this time?_

Too busy with her thoughts, Ayla hadn't realize she had moved her hand over her heart and wore a look of anxious hope upon her face. With her brow slightly furrowed around her light, slightly unfocused, golden brown eyes, and full bottom lip pulled between her teeth, Yakoh had grow concerned and moved closer.

Now that Ayla had come back to herself, she made eye contact with Yakoh and saw all that she needed to know to be sure that he loved her. How could she have ever doubted his love? It was written so clearly on his face and even more in the deep emotion of his dark chocolate brown eyes. They positively glowed with his heart warming love for her, sending it out not in arrows of light but in sizzling strikes of lightning that repetitively hit home in her own heart with warmth that reached deep down inside her and spread throughout.

_So much for trying to catch my breath._ Ayla's breathing had once again become unreliable. She fought to maintain a steady rhythm and focus on him at the same time. He was _so close_. She could _smell_ him, feel the heat that radiated from his body. She decided to study his face as she worked to remember how to breath.

He had a slight, thin scar that ran jaggedly across and bellow his left eyebrow. She remembered him telling her how it happened playing as a child, and decided it made him all the more handsome. His bottom lip was slightly fuller that the top and she found herself stuck on that one spot. Unconsciously she slowly licked her own, suddenly dry lips as she stared at his full pink ones.

Then so slowly she hardly realized he was moving until it was too late, not that she would have stopped him, he brushed the back of his knuckles along the edge of her jaw to the base of her head, cradling it in his hand. He slowly moved closer to give her plenty of time to pull away, to stop him _if _she wanted to. She didn't want to. When their lips touched for the very first time a small sigh escaped Ayla's mouth without her permission and her eyes closed of their own accord as well. But she could care less because Yakoh was kissing _her. _He was trying to show her that he loved her by gently rubbing his lips against hers as if he could possibly be enjoying this as much as she was.

Suddenly the kiss turned from soft and loving to fierce and demanding. He pulled her face closer to his with the hand he was now cupping her face with. She didn't mind this kiss at all. She actually _liked _the feel of it and knowing that he needed her just as much as she needed him and she began to kiss him back in earnest now.

Ayla slid the tip of her tongue out to taste his and his became searching and found what he wanted. Her response was more than he could have hoped for. And it turned him on. But he held his testosterone filled hormones at bay because none of that mattered right now. Nothing mattered right now. Not his kingdom, not sex, not that guards were watching them like a hawk. All that mattered right now was that he was kissing her and he knew that she loved him too.

It was in the way that she kissed him, always hungry to keep it going and to feel his lips against her own. It was in the way she mewled a soft sigh of pleasure as he took her bottom lip between his teeth and the way she wrapped her arms around him to bring him closer, to feel more of him.

He wrapped his hands in her hair and held her more firmly to administer the next wave of kisses upon her. Closing his eyes he wished that this moment, their first kiss, would last forever. Knowing all to well that it would be too brief for either of them, but hoping for the opportunity for more.


	2. Chapter 2

Koi – chapter 2

Just as if his very thoughts had summoned him, a guard appeared a few feet behind them and cleared his throat. Reluctantly Yakoh broke the kiss he wanted so much to continue and disentangled his hands from Ayla's full honey colored hair but replaced it with her hand, before looking at the guard.

Trying to keep his calm he asked "Yes?"

Bowing before Yakoh the guard said, "My lord I am sorry to interrupt, please forgive me. Your mother has sent me to attain a meeting with you for dinner. She asked of me to wait for your reply."

_That woman is nothing but trouble. Of course I would be meeting with her for dinner as I have been for the past three nights that she's asked it of me. She must be somewhere near by spying upon me and Ayla. Well let her!_

"Of course I will be there. Please tell her to meet me in the main dining hall at six. You may take your leave now."

"Yes your highness." With that the guard bowed graciously to Yakoh and nodded to Ayla before turning on his heal and walking towards the castle.

Ayla didn't know what to do. She had just been enjoying the happiest moment of her life, and it had been interrupted by the guard, but she didn't blame _him_. It was _her_, Yakoh's mother, Yukika who was nothing like the snow flower she was named after. A carnivorous flower would do her more justice as a description. Yukika was very beautiful especially for a woman of such advance age, but she was as deadly with her tongue and hateful heart as a flower that uses its beauty to lure in innocent victims.

Lately her choice of prey had been Ayla. Yukika did not approve of the growing relationship between her son and _the hired help_. It simply made Ayla sick to her stomach to think about how Yakoh's mother treated her when he wasn't around. She would _not _cry to him about it. _That _was out of the question. She had to be strong for him, to protect him, to be _with _him. With that last thought she smiled up at Yakoh and told him that she loved him.

Yakoh was stunned. He had waited such a long time to hear those very words come from her. He just didn't want them coming from the train of thought he knew Ayla was having. Even if she didn't tell him how his mother treated her, he heard about it around the castle, and he knew that it was Ayla's determination to be with him despite what Yukika wanted that made her say she loved him.

Frowning to himself he whispered to her without looking at her face, "I wish you would've told me without my mother's face in your mind. I can fix that."

He swept her in to his arms and made sure that she was looking him in the eyes so that she could see the love he had for her before he kissed her. He kissed her like he was a starved man who wanted nothing more than to eat his fill of her and leave nothing left of her to be shared with anyone else.

Slowly her response grew to the same heightened amount of intensity as his. She pressed herself closer to him, wanting to feel the length of him along her body, a small sigh of pleasure escaping her as she did so. There was something important that she needed to tell him, but she couldn't remember. All the kissing had made her dizzy.

She pulled slightly away from Yakoh so that she could see his face. It was beautiful. She fancied that it was the face of an angel and felt a warm tingling sensation run amuck in her stomach and she knew what it was that she wanted to tell him. Yakoh however, seemed to have other thoughts on his mind as he made clear by rubbing his lips along her jaw line and sprinkling kissing down her neck to her collarbone.

Wiggling further away from him she took his face into her hands to still his impatience at kissing her again. She couldn't resist and stole a whisper of a kiss before saying, "Yakoh, I love you. I love you more than the air I breathe or the ground I stand on. You have always been the anchor that holds me to this life and I want to be with you."

"I love you too Ayla. More than anything, I love you."

His body tensed as he heard and said the words he needed to hear to survive. He knew she felt _him_ by the way her face turned a deeper shade of red, if that was even possible, and she shifted her eyes to look bashfully up at him. He wanted her so badly it _hurt._

Thoughts of taking her right then and there ran through his mind, but he knew she wouldn't approve of such a public display. _I could always take her to my room and order the guards to stay away for an hour, two hours…all night._ No that would never work his nosey mother would come to investigate, demanding to know why he hadn't shown up for dinner. Then there was the fact that Ayla was still a virgin. He didn't want her first time to be rough and he didn't know if he could be as _careful_ with her as he wanted to right now.

The only thing left to do was to leave her right now, because if he didn't, well she would have to be ok with a public show. He pulled away from her, holding her body at arm's length away. He saw the confusion on her face as she took in the way he was holding her and for a minute hurt flashed in her eyes but was quickly gone.

She was smart and understood what he was doing without having to be told; still, she would like to _hear_ him say it. She wanted to hear him tell her how much he wanted her to… Before she could finish her train of thought he spoke it aloud for her.

"This, what is happing between us is like a lightning storm. I feel the electric fire deep inside of every part of my body and it craves for an outlet to ground it. As fiercely as I want you Ayla, I _do not _want you to get burned by the storm raging within me."

"But I feel it too." Ayla wasn't as willing to end her newly declared passion for him to end. She pushed her way back into his arms rather than being held away by them and pressed her lips to the hollow at the base of his throat. "I feel the lightning strikes hitting me in waves rather than short bursts, they roll 

and twist in my belly. Their hot tongues lash out at my heart and wrap themselves around it forcing it to beat erratically. It doesn't burn. It is just a taste that leaves me craving more."

"Please, don't tell me things like that. They are exactly what I _want_ to hear but far from what I _need _to hear. I do love you Ayla but I must go for now to let the fire settled before it consumes me. Meet me for a walk tonight through the gardens I won't accept no for an answer."

"I love you. I will be here."

The held each other for a long moment the only sound that which nature makes and their heartbeats. Careful not to linger Yakoh kissed her gently on her full soft lips and backed away, not as quickly as before and walked back towards the castle.

Ayla couldn't move. She didn't want to. She stood there watching him walk away, but frequently turning to look at her as if to be sure she was still there. She didn't want to move an inch for fear of losing the feeling of his kiss on her lips. Eventually she turned to face the pond again and sat down as she had before with her toes in the water. She still didn't want to leave, this was the place Yakoh first told her he loved her.

At some point she must have fallen asleep because the next thing she knew the sky was begging to purple on the horizon. It was beautiful. The clouds danced like pink water lilies on blue-purple lake. The sun was a warm orange and Ayla wished that Yakoh was here to see it with her.

Tucking her legs beneath herself she sat up and stared at it much like when she was a child sitting in her mother's lap. She would sing to Ayla and rock her side to side while stroking her honey-blonde hair. _That was the way a mother should act._ She sighed to herself and was thankful that she still had her wonderful mother. She had lost her father but was able to get through that with the help of her loving mother, Manami.

Mother. Hmp.

Yakoh's mother was nothing like Ayla's mother. Where Manami's character was that of love and encouragement, Yukika was a woman of rules and discipline. Manami would reward good behavior or a job well done with hug or sweets if available. All poor Yakoh had receive as a child for good behavior or learning something new was a new task or assignment that _would help him to be a better king. _

Even now as an amazing king, his mother still tried to interfere with his life or push him into the direction _she_ believed would help him to be better still.

Ayla knew that Yakoh loved his mother very much, but that it was hard for him to like her. It made her sad to know that the one she loved so much didn't have the same motherly love did. _Well he could…_ No. She refused to think that way, especially so soon. To think of him asking him to marry her was simply preposterous. After all he's the king and she is only a guard in a sense. _Still, I can at least dream._

She rose to her feet as the thought of how it could be, a slight smile on her face, and stretched her limbs to remove the cricks that had formed while being immobile for so long. Her stomach growled impatiently at her and she remembered that she hadn't eaten since early that morning. _Better go see if mother has anything delicious left of dinner._

As she walked toward the part of the castle where her family was quartered she became aware of the lack of guards on patrol. She was puzzled, but not overly worried about it after all she could handle it if someone were to attack her.

Ayla immediately understood why there were such few guards the moment she heard Yukika call out to her from behind. She had ordered them to different parts of the castle so that she could ambush Ayla and harass her without any witnesses to inform Yakoh.

Taking a deep breath for encouragement, Ayla braced herself and turned to meet the eyes of the woman who wished to destroy her new found happiness.


End file.
